![]() Rodgers and Hammerstein created an Oklahoma of the imagination to counter the grim images of uprooted Okies fleeing the “dust bowl” in the Great Depression. It surprises people to learn that Oklahoma! was written by two New Yorkers who had never been to that state but had a gloriously optimistic vision to share. Rodgers and Hammerstein were the blue-chip brand on Broadway from Oklahoma! in 1943 through The Sound of Music in 1959. And where Rodgers and Hart set store by irony and wit (rhyming “romance” with “those ants that invaded my pants” in “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”), the later partnership favored the full-throated sentiment of “If I Loved You” and “Some Enchanted Evening.” With Hammerstein, the order was reversed. Working with Hart, Rodgers had written the music first. With Hart’s decline and untimely death in 1943, Rodgers commenced the collaborating with Oscar Hammerstein (1895-1960) that produced five landmark Broadway musicals and an Oscar-winning Hollywood movie. At the same time, there isn’t anything I’ve ever done that I didn’t want to do better.” – Richard Rodgersįor two decades, Richard Rodgers (1902-1979) wrote songs in an exclusive partnership with Lorenz Hart (1895-1943). “There isn’t anything I wanted to do, that I haven’t. and the American Library Association Public Programs Office
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